Majak Zine (2022)

Majak Zine (2022)

This zine is a creative project exploring themes of identity, memory, and connection through shared narratives. I started this project after hearing another story about one of my grandmother’s neighbours. It prompted a question - What does a place consist of? The buildings, roads and paths or maybe its history, stories and people. All these little bits of gossip that wander through the neighbourhood make it feel like a living breathing being. People have lived next to each other for generations in this neighbourhood called after its lighthouse (маяк) designed by the french. Their lives connected by tiny daily moments of happiness and sadness. I wanted to capture this feeling of people still living in this neighbourhood and people gone though this gossip. Let’s meet them!

Flip Through the Zine

About the Project

Created in 2022, it combines photography and text to create an intimate reading experience and immerses the reader in the world of the neighbourhood thorugh stories rather than history. Some names were changed. All photographs were made by me (Katharina Koetter) in Sukhumi, Abkhazia.

Abkhazia is a seperatist region in the territory of Georgia which declared independence after the Georgio-Abkhazian war (1992-1993) and is only officially recognized by a couple of countries. This causes inconvinience for my family as travelling to see my grandmother is difficult, however whenever we visit I realise that life goes on in places and ways where (as a privilged white european) I find it hard to imagine. This zine is not about my story, but about the people who actually live there.

The zine was printed with a small edition of 40 pieces and sold by post, with profits going to charity. If you want to contribute please contact me!